JUNE 1, 1916 



the discussions in Glean- 

 ings on tlie subject of 

 the amount of honey or 

 syrup required to enable 

 bees to secrete a given 

 amount of wax, and I 

 confess to a growing- 

 feeling of "you'll have to 

 show me" in regard to the 

 statement that it takes fif- 

 teen (or ■ even seven 

 pounds) of honey to pro- 

 duce one pound of wax. 

 The amount of corab that 

 bees sometimes build 

 when confined in a cage 

 tends to disprove these 

 theories. No doubt, un- 

 der certain circumstances, 

 if fifteen pounds of honey 

 were fed to a colony, not 

 more than a pound of 

 wax would be secreted ; 

 but what of the amount 

 I hat the bees feed to 

 brood, and actually con- 

 sume for their own suste- 

 nance'? 



How a sheet of foun- 

 dation does "grow" when 

 the bees get at it ! In case 

 of foundation they draw 

 out the cells about % 

 inch, on the average, be- 

 fore being obliged to add 

 new wax. But when a strong force of bees 

 clusters on a sheet of foundation during a 

 warm day when honey is coming in just 



443 



Zinc friiit-.iar lids make a novel form of adulterant for beeswax. 



right, and they need the room, they will go 

 far toward changing the foundation into 

 comb in ten hours' time. 



Full sheet of comb foundation partly " drawn out " into comb. 



